#i love the concept of dnd. i’ve not managed to get it to work out for me fully yet tho. i’m not gonna force it either

[dragonuv3]

Arekkz Scrapheart and lore building an arms forger

First Picture drawn by the lovely @kobold-kurios​

All other images drawn by me.

So let me start this off by saying that I’ve never been THIS in depth with actually writing and drawing lore for a DnD character. Especially during a setting where magic (initially) is limited to clerics and paladins to a disaster in the first season.

Arekkz scrapheart is a Gnoll Artificer in the second season of Kobold’s Bards & Blades campaign. To describe him in a few words: driven, intelligent, exciteable, and intuitive. From his rural tribe to a big city to learn how to be an articifer, he’s managed to make a name for himself as a skilled artisan of the Stonecutter’s guild in Tulpio (the city both groups start in). He also is the sole proprieter of a shop called the Gnoll’n Arms.

Now getting into the main drive of this post.

Arekkz’s LOVED watching his people forge weapons ever since he was a pup, and took it upon himself to build his first makeshift weapon. And getting to the city of Tulpio, where he’s seen the people there try to replecate magic through alchemy and steampunk technology, his drive in life is to learn more about magic by “sciencing the shit out of it.”

Cue the MO for how he ends up making his weapons for people. Since I was building an artificer in a world without magic, the challenge would be to figure out certain limitations with how he earned his living, and how he cast spells in unconventional ways. I took a lot of inspiration from the usual aesthetics of gnoll weapons, and a lot from Austraila and Junkertown in Overwatch, while still trying to keep it classy enough for customers to want to come and get an excusive of Arekkz’s work. His trademark being bite indents made on the metal before the final treatment process.

The hardest part for me was to make the weapons he make seem almost like he got things from a junkyard and managed to make something not only functional, but aesthetically pleasing in a rough around the edges kind of way. The “boom stick” on the far right being a failure that didn’t mesh well. Not to mention I want to be able to explain just how they work in some instances without having to leave it to DM disgression. And I even started writing some notes about them in character.

Two of them I’m most proud of. First being the Spark Knife

Arekkz personal weapons are all able to help him with his special brand of spellcasting when not being exclusive to other alchemical components and mixtures (or specialized grenades). The Spark Blade in particular coming in a breakthrough for a personal project of his. A way to cast the Green-Flame Blade cantrip. The handle has compression switches on either side of the handle that causes a spark to emmit from just behind the blade that would ignite flammable vapors that (to the current session) Arekkz would spray and release from a vial.

The concept would actually help get an idea for how to make it work with a longer blade. In character, he had trouble replicating what he could do with the Spark Blade due to short swords and longswords either warping, losing sharpness, or not getting the right amoutn of destructive force needed while stress testing them. He ended up going back to the drawing board to figure out what about the Spark Blade worked, and he realized that the metal had enough mass and surface area to survive being used as a “spell focus”, and the materials used managed to keep it from falling apart.

With that in mind, he ended up forgoing the smaller swords and worked with a slab of metal to get a proper greatsword. And the result...

A successful prototype that survived multiple stress tests, and with it, finally given a name: “The Scrapyard Runt Mk.I” (A personal hommage to how HE started with forging). It’s still a work in process, but leaps and bounds farther than what he was able to do before. 

I’ll post more weapon sketches as we go deeper into the campaign, as Arekkz’ll probably be commissioned to do work for both HIS party and the Side A party that goes the day before us.

[creativenicocorner]

2022 Writing Retrospective

2022 was a very interesting year. It certainly went places. It was a year in which I took a slight break from Trollhunters, but also the year I first dipped my toes into writing Discworld fanfic, which has been an incredible and fun san box to play in so far, and I sincerely look forward to posting more. 

I’m also fine with admitting that I certainly didn’t write as much as I would have liked in 2022. But that was mainly due to getting a rather intense and draining job which left me with not as much energy as I would have liked. Because of that I found myself making piece with the concept of just writing with less perfectionism in mind...this might lead to not as much polished stuff published in the future...I’ve made peace with imperfections, and hopefully (while always striving to do as well as I can) I can also be less hard on myself when works are less than perfect when published. In short this might be the dawn of what a dear friend of mine titled “The Sketchbook Era” haha  

We’ll see 

2022 STATS 

2022 Total number of.. User Subscriptions: 14 Kudos: 261 Comment Threads: 85 Bookmarks: 56 Subscriptions: 69 (hehe) Word Count: 60,501 Hits: 4,230

Top five hits/fics of 2022:

1) Unbecoming 2 Electric Boogaloo 2) Trial Runs and Errors 3) Small Soppy Snippets 4) The Runaway's Gamble 5) The Start of a New Story

2023 Expectations? Goals? Some sort of word like that...

While I am no longer in a sucky soul destroying work place job, I have a lot of personal projects planned that I’m working on, and a number of ideas in mind to help further my own career. I hope I’ll be able to find a good balance this year between personal/RL situations, and this lovely hobby. I want to grow as a person, a better person, I want so many things for my future...but that can only be possible if I plant the right seeds, and be kind to myself along the way. 

There’s a number of Discworld fics I want to crank out, and personal HC and ideas I would love to share and explore. Especially the relationship between Sam Vimes and Moist von Lipwig, as well as the Sto Helit family. I think about them a normal amount lol

I’d also like to tentatively step back into the ToA world, but it’ll probably be more of a wiggling shuffle. It would be grand if I could manage to get a chapter of either Unbecoming 2, Alto Mare , or Terpsichore out (hell it would be phenomenal if I finally finish ACT I of Terpsichore!! But that’s shooting for the stars lol) we’ll see...no promises though  

I’d also like to return to some of my DnD character fics. Between the two DnD fics I have so far there’s a good chance I might be able to publish something for Come on Eileen! though the next chapter may or may not be just a full comic instead of posted in its experimental script form.

 I’d like to explore comic making more, especially with what I have planned in the more professional future.   

And that’s that on that I suppose! 

Thank you for reading this far, and happy 2023, may it bring softness and good fortune to all. 

Stay awesome out there

Best wishes

[thehappiestgolucky]

This is mostly just a passing thought-turned-question I’m deciding to make your problem ask, but do you think anyone out of the bugs/group (be it mer au, lost in hisui, vigilante, or just good ol’ normal group o’ bugs) would enjoy DND? Apologies if this is a weird question btw ;w;

Ooo fun question! (I don’t mind this kind of question at all!)

I have way too many aus to keep track of, so I’ll probably just go with the good ol’ bugs to keep it easy lmao. I’ll also put it under a keep reading in case it gets long lmao-

So here’s the peeps I personally think would enjoy DnD:

Quirrel: Cmon, I feel like the game is made for him! A chance to weave an interesting and engaging story be he player or dm? I feel like he’d make a really good dm too tbh. I feel like the combat for him would be less engaging than the rp sessions - developing characters or lore feels far more interesting than rolling numbers to get the big hit on random mobs. He’s that kind of player to perception check everything because he loves exploring.

Grimm: Again, hes basically made for it - but this time in the player category. Specifically making the dumbest, most chaotic and fun characters to play as. He doesn’t go with op ones - he plays those characters that keep the dm on their toes and can potentially desynchronise or enhance the plot. Also just very good at the combat and rp side of it too. He is not above annoying players and dms - especially if Tiso is playing with him. Their characters would quickly develop the exact same bond as them: “Asshole” “Aww a pet name, how sweet >:)” chaotic best friends.

Tiso: Tiso is a sort of. I think he’d enjoy the combat and silly things you can do in DnD, but extensive serious rp can take him out of it big time. He would hate to be the dm - it’s too many things for him to keep track of and he’d end up going off track himself with combat. I feel like he’d engage in dumb one-shots, and dms (like Quirrel) that will account for his attention span and try to balance out a game for him that has plenty of combat scenarios to keep him engaged. He could maybe have small serious rp, to try to low-key vent or work through his own issues - but they’d be rare and he’d get moody afterwards until he gets distracted by a combat round or something.

Hollow: I feel like DnD is a perfect game for them to slowly embrace their own sense of self and acceptance. They’ve got a lot of trauma to work through and some hardcore projection onto a game can help them work through it without tackling those hard lessons onto themselves immediatly. Definetly a player, they have way too far to go to accept their ability to make a world as a dm, and would tend to be as minimal as a character as possible. Slowly you get to see their characters go from one sentence blank slates to getting more and more developed and realised - and oh it’s lovely <:)

Iselda: I think she’d like it! It gives her something to do whilst Cornifer is out afterall. She’s really good at the puzzle and combat side of DnD, but she’s engage with the rp as much as possible. I think she’s a more casual enjoyer - and maybe would dabble into trying to dm some one-shots should she get the urge to. As a dm - I think she makes a solid base and lets the players go ham and makes it up as she goes. It’s engaging enough that it’s not too noticeable.

Salubra: I think she’d make a really good dm, but probably wouldn’t enjoy being a player. She’d probably have a reoccurring character in any of her games that gets beloved by the players - so they don’t die but they don’t really benefit the plot or power at all. She just likes making funny lil guys.

Zote: It’s the power fantasy as a player. You know the ones - that take it too far and suck some joy out of it by trying to become the main character(tm). Fun to watch his ass get handed to him by a simply trap because of his dumbfoolery though-

Monomon: Another dm, one that’s easily noticeable more time goes into the worlds biology and ecosystem than the plot and characters. So instead her worlds get to be explored in the more abstract background world lense than what some other games are. Behold party - you are the Tiktik protectors now.

Lurien: In concept. He’s like me approaching DnD - adores the concept and imagines the sorts of characters and interactions he could have - enjoying at time with friends over a game. If he could actually do it that is. If he would try to rp he would go silent (mood) and trying to interact with players in a shift of their usual interactions can be scary (also mood)

Markoth…ish: So with Markoth, I think he’d be this really amazing dm and player. But he wouldn’t engage with it. He has enough trouble identifying moods and tone normally - and being in an rp session can throw him off. Plus, social interaction just isn’t his thing. But he’s here as someone who would be really good, engaging and actually save a party with his braincell should he ever do it with a close group he trusts.

Xero: On the contrary, I think Xero would really really enjoy DnD - the social butterfly that he is. But he probably sucks at it. Has most likely gotten multiple characters killed because he wasn’t paying attention to the trap warnings - but nobody minds his dumb moments. He takes it all in stride and more than makes up for it with his fun attitude and even sillier characters he brings out.

Isma: I don’t have much to say about her. I just… I just think she’d find it fun…

Same with Ogrim and Hegemol.

Annnd I can’t think of others. Not that the others would hate it - I just can’t think of anymore that would like it compared to their hobbies they enjoy more. Like Sheo would probably just prefer painting - no big major reason. Just vibes ig

[dailyadventureprompts]

Drafting the Adventure: Lessons Learned

I love stories that focus on people developing new skills, partially because I as a creative I pride myself on constantly improving my craft, partially because there’s so much potential in a story about learning and how it relates to the evolution of the character’s arc:   A character puts their heart and soul into something they SHOULD be good at but falls short because they just don’t muster up, only to figure out a way to succeed that’s uniquely theirs. A pair of characters grow closer as they exchange skills that will keep the other alive. An uptight and pillaged character gets their hands dirty for once and learns that they actually like doing something constructive. 

All these and a thousand more arcs form the foundation of some of the world’s best stories, providing meaningful development of both conflict and themes without forcing the stakes to climb ever higher. The hero learning some essential skill can be just as cathartic as the defeat of a hated villain, while curbing the need to constantly introduce new external hazards to keep the audience engaged. 

Color me disappointed then when I realized that d&d’s mechanics for learning new proficiencies are laughably bad, relegated to a downtime activity that much like crafting can only really be done off screen and requires months of time away from actually adventuring to perform. I didn’t want to run my games that way, so below the cut I’m going to link to possibly the best “learning” system I’ve seen in a d20 format,  then explain why you should let your party start gathering new proficiencies and other abilities even if it breaks the traditional paradigm of “leveling up”

The System: created by https://dumpstatadventures.com/ (good stuff, go check them out), features a mechanic that matches what you’re trying to learn with a particular ability score, then assigns you a die based on your bonus in that score. Every time you roll a 1 on that die, you decrease the size of the die, until eventually you learn the thing you want to learn after rolling a 1 on a d4. Each of these training sessions takes 4 hours, which is a perfectly manageable amount of time for adventurers to fit into their routine, making it instantly better than a lot of the other systems I’ve seen that require a student to potentially take months off in order to pick something up. 

Doesn’t this break the game?: While it’s true that having more profficencies does make a character more powerful, I want to point out that dnd is a game about telling stories, not mathmatical perfection. There are plenty of things in the game already that break the “Power curve”, and I can promise you letting a character pick up a new hobby or the ability to speak sign language isn’t going to fundamentally break the underlying math of the game. 

Effort should be rewarded, and systems like this allow you to reward your players’ effort in a tangible way, making their character feel unique compared to others of a comparable level. Likewise, this customization creates whole new forms of emergent storytelling, as the characters decide which skills they’d like to peruse: 

The wizard teaches everyone a dead language so they can communicate in code

A party signs on with a vessel to earn their sea legs (read: water vehicle proficiency) before crewing a vessel of their own

Characters can learn specific skills not commonly available, such as law or mercantilism, to better fit with their character concept. 

The return of exotic weapons! Now rather than requiring a feat to utilize a chakram or kursuri-gama, the fighter need only put in the requisite training hours. 

A character loses a limb and must grow used to the prosthetic, practicing and practicing until the replacement becomes second nature. 

In addition to learning new profficencies, I think this system works great for characters improving their already existing capabilities, especially as tips and tricks handed down from mentor characters and skillful rivals. Mete these out as you see fit. 

Skill expertise: It WOULD break the game if players doubled their proficiency on every skill check, but there’s no reason that a character can’t put their mind towards being the very best at something. I’d tie this training into quest, really digging into WHY they want to be the best and what motivates their passion.  

Alternate class features: players arn’t always going to read through the optional content documents ( or all that delightful 3rd party material) so having them taught these tricks and modifications by fellow casters lets you introduce the option without overwhelming a character with choices. 

Boons: given that the dmg is very rare on how often your’e supposed to give these out, letting platers work for these powerful mini-feats provides a steady means of doing so. 

Feats: give some love to little selected feats by offering a player the ability to train in a SPECIFIC one ( learning gourmand from a master cook, learning an ancestral feat from an elder of their community) that might interest them, but they’d pass over because it wouldn’t always be useful.  

Unlocking the powers of an artifact, beyond an identify spell. 

Proficiency dice: there’s a variant rule that rather than adding a flat bonus based on your proficiency, you can roll a die, size determined by what that your proficiency bonus would be ( d4 for +2, d6 for +3 and so on). This might slow down gameplay if it was for every roll, but consider letting a character train to “surpass their limits”, granting the ability to replace their proficiency bonus for a die during one roll or save at the cost of a hitdie. This would let them use their healing pool in a whole new way, as well as provide a great moment of achievement for a character that’s surpassed their individual limits. 

[basically-i-write-shit]

PLEASE tell me about the hq dnd au. I’m intrigued

I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS ONE

ok but like genuinely I wrote a little oneshot of how I think it would go for tskym week like...three years ago and I'm disappointed it didn't get as much interest as i thought it would. I got really into D&D when I started listening to The Adventure Zone in 2018 (which, I think it's absolutely crazy that was 4 years ago btw) and I've been obsessed with the idea of the hq gang playing dnd for a while.

The premise of the fic is that the reader is experiencing the campaign, not the process of making it, but through a unique lens: we're watching the PCs instead of the characters playing at the table. Each character's PC is of course created with a class, race, and backstory that is different than their own with unique names- but, because it's still a Haikyuu fic, we're still watching the characters go through these situations.

So like, in my example fic, we read and comprehend that "Tsukishima" and "Yamaguchi" are the ones controlling the narrative, but their characters are the ones experiencing the sensations.

Ex:

The way I would work this is by essentially writing a fantasy Haikyuu fic that loosely follows D&D 5e rules/my small knowledge of how D&D works, and include cut scenes like provided in the example to show the "playing" D&D aspect of the fic. This would also be able to excuse any acts that the "Characters" (PCs with their names changed to reflect the person playing them) do that may seem OOC or weird choices for them to make by blaming it on a "bad roll" or "failed check." Essentially bailing the author out if people complain about a character's actions being "totally OOC for him" lol.

"But 12 people is a lot of people for a D&D party, isn't it?" The answer to that is yes. Having all of one team or multiple teams in one campaign together would be near impossible for an IRL game. Like, not gonna lie there. I would probably have the team split into two separate campaigns that occasionally overlap, with other characters from other teams simply being NPCs that the audience, looking at the story from an outsider's perspective, could potentially identify as another character. Great example would be, if the campaign follows Karasuno, seeing a childhood friend duo could imply either Kuroo and Kenma or Oikawa and Iwaizumi or one of the Miya twins and Aran, depending on the relationship of the duo.

I have a lot of feelings about potentially writing this one day, and the ideas are probably confusing if you haven't read the oneshot I did with the concept, but year. D&D AU.

Additionally:

In a Karasuno-centric version of this, Ennoshita is of course the DM.

They host at Tanaka or Daichi or Yamaguchi's houses the most, because they have a lot of space and their parents aren't home often enough for such a large group meet in.

Another way to shrink the group is to just have Narita and Kinoshita have their own separate campaign that Enno DMs on the side, but I like the idea of an even split for players.

Tanaka has played a dragonborn in every campaign he's ever played and has a custom dice set that looks like a dragon's hoard.

Akiteru DMed a mini campaign for Yamaguchi and Tsukki when they were in middle school, and Enno discovering their minis while studying at Yamaguchi's house is how they get their team campaign going.

Hinata, like everything else, is a complete newbie but somehow manages to rock everyone's shit still. Like, everyone's convinced his dice are loaded even after doing multiple float tests, but he just had great rolls. That is, until he needs to have a good roll in the middle of some important combat and he gets a 3 with a -2 add on and nearly beefs it.

Tsukki has healing spells, which he absolutely should not be allowed to have bc he refuses to use them on anyone anyway.

Tsukki and Daichi are very anti-roleplay. Meanwhile, Suga, Tanaka, and Hinata absolutely love it. Everyone else is neutral with a positive lean.

Yamaguchi is surprisingly the one that romances everyone he sees- surprising because of his general demeanor, but also because I genuinely think he either plays paladin, cleric, or monk. Very non-flirtatious beings, usually.

Yachi and Kiyoko are definitely in this somewhere. I can't decide if I want them actually playing or as NPCs somewhere in the story, but they're definitely there.

I like to think that the other teams also have their own campaigns going on, and sometimes they run into one another at a post-session dinner or something.

This could honestly fit into the highschool canon or in like a college AU.

[dokidokey]

KAMI: 21 questions

summary: kaminari denki does not understand the significance of explaining the song he wrote about his ex-girlfriend, but little did he know, a certain fan needed just his words to lift herself up from her one-week misery.

pairings: kaminari denki x reader

bingo slot: musician x fan au

genre: fluff, slight angst if you squint real hard

warning/s: swearing, mentions of todomomo, mentions of cheating, a very adorable denki (!!!)

word count: 3,042

notes: I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS I AM LITERALLY BURSTING DON’T MIND ME IGNORING MY 289384 WIPS BUT I GOTTA DO THIS ONE. anyways, 4th bingo piece for @bnhabookclub’s hero camp bingo! my series masterlist, along with my event masterlist, can be found HERE. what series? this is discontinued (even though it didn’t start in the first place.)

Kaminari is one to always decline media companies’ interviews, most especially, Verified. Verified is a media company that asks artists in to shred their songs lyric by lyric and give its meaning. Kaminari never understood the concept of that. Like, what is the point? Aren’t things more interesting if you leave it be and leave your fans to decipher it how they want?

But here he is, with a yellow backdrop that matches his hair and his manager, who dropped this bomb on him yesterday, on the other end of the room. He never agreed to this. What is the point of prying his song line by line? Wasn’t it obvious enough that it is about his ex-girlfriend who cheated on him?

“But it’s good for you! Plus, the exposure!” Mina, his manager, reasoned out yesterday, the paper in her hands dancing in the air. “Your song is gaining views, Denki. It’s good to take the spotlight while it’s there.”

Denki groaned, throwing his head back. “I know. But explaining the lyrics? Really? Is there any other way?”

Mina rested her hands on her hips, a stern look on her face. “No. Besides, Verified is a big and popular company. You better not be sulking tomorrow.”

He just grumbled as she left his studio. It’s not like she left him a choice.

“You ready?” The man behind the camera asks him, angling to the lens to get a better view of him.

Denki smiles, nodding. Here he is anyway, might as well get it done as soon as possible. When the man in front of him nods, Denki raises his hands in a wave.

“Hi there! It’s KAMI, and here is the official lyrics and meaning of 21 Questions,” he grins and pauses, waiting for the question the Verified employee will ask which will be cut off during editing.

“What is the song about?” The brunette beside the camera man asks.

Denki clasps his hands together. “You know, that feeling in a. . . relationship, when it starts falling apart and there are these－ these questions running around in your head, like why did she do that, how did she do that.” His hands were moving all over the place as he talks, going up in circles beside his head and down to his lap again. “This song. . . It’s－ It’s my inner turmoil.”

He nods to signify the end of his explanation, then goes on to talk about the first verse. “So first we have, I wish there was a situation to be mad at or a person I could blame, which is. . .” Denki trails off, pursing his lips together. “Thinking about, you know, wondering if it’s alright to blame her, or blame me, or blame the other guy. Because, thinking about it, there must be something－ something wrong with me, or there’s something I don’t have that the other guy does, for her to do that.”

Denki hates this. He hates every moment of it. He is literally just opening his sleeve up for the world to see. Some people won’t even care about it. This whole idea of splitting himself open, his heartbreak in all its glory, for people to just shrug off is so pointless.

He continues, nevertheless, because does he even have a choice?

“I’ve got a loud mouth, I’m pale with a ghost obsession but behind the scenes with her I’m playing twenty-one questions,” he sings, slurring the words. “Everyone knows that I talk a lot, okay?” He laughs, the tinkling sound bouncing inside the four walls. “That, and, this one. . . It’s kind of－ It’s saying－ The me I show the world isn’t the same me I face her with. Meaning, like, during the time this was going on, no one would ever guess our relationship was falling apart.”

Reliving the same hurt is hell. He doesn’t understand how Mina can just stand there when she had a front row seat of his pain. There’s an inkling of annoyance and betrayal dancing in Kaminari’s chest, along with a the guilt he’s feeling for feeling that way.

The singer wrings his hands together as he forces himself to spew out what needed to be heard. If they ask him who the song is about, he might just lose his mind. The song cover art’s background is literally Kyouka Jirou’s jacket. Yes, he made it that obvious who the song is about.

“So. . . There’s gotta be a reason you keep your guy in hiding, I’m becoming what I’ve hated but your talk is so inviting. The first line is pretty self-explanatory,” he smiles at the camera, a little wobbly and a little unsure. “I’m becoming what I’ve hated. . . That’s, uh, see, I never liked the fact that she cheated on another man with me and I didn’t know because you know, she told me she was single. I wasn’t aware she was in a relationship and cheating,” he rubs the back of his neck with an uneasy smile. “And now I’m becoming the other man, I’m the one being cheated on, but I can’t do anything about it because she－ well, she’s intoxicating.”

He continues, thrumming his fingers on his jean-clad thigh. “But then what, you drop your guy and take me on, it’s everything I wanted but then what, would you get tired of my time. Hmm,” Denki tilts his head to the side a little, eyes upward. “He left him for me and now would you get tired of my time, of me, of the tours and work and everything. Would you get tired and do the same thing you did to the other man.”

The chorus of the song is next, and a disbelieving chuckle bubbles up his throat. God, he was so fucking whipped for that woman, it kind of throws him off a little now.

“My mood’s dictated by our conversation and if you don’t text, I get too frustrated, I want you all to myself this time. Conflicted looks good on me, I’m trying desperately, I want you all to myself this time,” he sings offhandedly, bobbing his head along the tune of his failed love. “This－ This is an interesting one because I always have my phone on DND,” he shares to the camera like it’s a secret to be well-kept by everyone. “And when she came along I started leaving my phone on ring so I won’t miss any of her texts or calls. It was so unlike me that it kind of scared me a little bit, to be honest.”

Kyouka Jirou was an amazing girl, Kaminari won’t deny that. They got along so well. They wrote songs together over champagne and the dim lights of his studio. They shared kisses behind cameras. They even whispered sweet promises to each other in the void of Denki’s room. Those things happened and she had another man all along.

In the back of his mind, Denki is disgusted. With who, however, he doesn’t know. He’d been kissing his girlfriend who kissed another man. Who is he to know if that was the only thing they ever did.

It was sad, to say the least. Loving someone right under your nose who is loving another man behind your back. It was like Jirou took his heart and ripped it right in front of him, and she made sure to break it so good it would be hard for Kaminari to love again.

“I never have to carefully shape sentences when I have some words to say. They’re falling from my mouth from the time that they hit my brain. I don’t have a brake in my mouth, okay?” He pauses to stare at the camera. “I say whatever I think even before I realize what the fuck I’m saying.”

When Denki sees Mina’s eyes immediately growing wide like saucers at the expletive, he slaps a hand over his mouth. Verified always bleeps out curses and his mind decided to throw that information out the window. “Sorry!” He giggles behind his palm. “See!” He points at the camera. “That is the exact meaning of those lyrics!”

Small giggles are still erupting from the man as he tries to suppress it and get on the next parts. “Will that be cut out? Can we cut that out?” He wheezes as he rubs sweaty palms on denim. “Anyway,” he breathes, puffing his chest up and sitting himself right on the stool. “’Cause we built a picture made for frames, we live in chemistry away from all the wasted time and taste.”

Denki’s mind paddles back to a late night writing session with his former girlfriend, the other half of his sandwich long forgotten as he stared at the girl, who seems like the whole world to him as she scribbles word after word on the ripped piece of paper she snatched up somewhere on his messy table. He swears there are stars twinkling in the background whenever he catches sight of her, and it makes his little heart swell with pride as he softly tells her promises of their future together.

“We were too perfect,” Denki says, clicking his tongue after as if in disappointment. “We were. . . wrapped up in our own world. Or maybe I was the only one wrapped up in something that was. . .” He falters, heart aching at the thought of the promises that are nothing now.

He covers it up with a smile, eyes crinkling at the sides as he let his hands rest on the back of the stool. “And it sucks to sleep ’cause you aren’t talking to me. I wanna give you space but the amount between us is wrecking me.” Kaminari squints as he hums, tilting his head back and groaning softly. “So, this one. . . This is where we were nearing the end and the communication was so bad even though that was the only thing I wanted to somehow still fix what was left of our relationship, but she didn’t want that. We were already light-years away from each other, what was I supposed to do?” He lifts one hand up in a “what?” motion and crumples his eyebrows together.

He slurs out the next lyrics. “’Cause then what, you dropped your guy and took me on it’s everything I wanted but then what, am I in his position now?” He claps his hands like he just discovered something big. “This! Am I in the position of the other guy before me? Like, am I now in his place? Will you leave me for the guy you. . . cheated on me with.”

Kaminari then goofily positions his arms as if holding a guitar, and starts strumming the air while bobbing his head side to side. “I’ll forget you if you need me to, like nothing ever happened. My sun still sets without you, like nothing ever happened.” His smile is glowing as he stretches his arms wide. “I can forget, and I will,” he looks determinedly at the camera. “And I will get on with my life and do the things I love and every day would be a happier day for me,” he grins. “Even without you.”

Denki doesn’t realize that little slip up of acknowledging her as he waves goodbye, a sliver of something heavy lifting off his shoulders.

It’s another boring Sunday for you as you snuggle your blanket on the couch, the show on the TV serving to be just white noise as you go over your last texts with your ex-boyfriend.

It has been a week since your break up with Shouto and you’re still moping. He calmly explained to you how your relationship wasn’t working out anymore and that he started having feelings for a friend. In spite, you replied with “I wasn’t aware our relationship had gym schedules.” And that was the end of it.

You groan at your stupidity. If you weren’t so caught up in your jealousy, you could have talked to him a little nicer, a little calmer. But you knew who that friend he was pertaining to. Yaoyorozu Momo, the girl who always seems to be around your boyfriend. She’s a meek girl, and even before you and Shouto got together, she had been around. So, Yaoyorozu was there before you.

There are times when you and Shouto are out and she would happen to be at the same place. At first, you didn’t pay any mind, but when it got more frequent, you had your suspicions. What’s worse is that whenever she’s around, she’ll just smile at you and that’s that. She’ll pretend like you’re not standing right next to your boyfriend and like you didn’t exist. It made you feel small.

You’re loud and, at times, obnoxious. You are aware of how much attention you catch because of your brazen attitude. It really was a mystery how Todoroki liked you. You two were so different. He was more on the likes of Yaoyorozu, and thinking about it, they were so much more alike that it’s ridiculous. Yaoyorozu’s a rich girl, and so is Shouto. Their auras are the same and they give off the same vibes. Those are what really pulled at your insecurity.

And see, it didn’t take long for Todoroki to realize he didn’t belong with you. You loved him, yes, and you thought maybe you’d last forever. But now, seeing how it all ended, you want to laugh at the face of your past self for thinking such absurd things. Of course it wouldn’t last. Maybe you were too much for Todoroki.

The bubbling insecurities inside you is just starting up when there’s a ping from your phone and you groan, thinking it’s Hitoshi again because he’s been pestering you for the past week to actually get up and be productive. But no, it isn’t your friend. It’s a notification for the latest tweet of your favorite artist, KAMI, and you almost fall off the couch when you read it.

10 minutes til @Verified drops my official lyrics and meaning vid for 21 questions! Stay tuned!

Fuck, what the fuck? Official lyrics and meaning? The four walls of your room are the witnesses to how much you cried to that song after your break up. Some lyrics were so relatable but you’re relieved you didn’t experience the cheating part. It must suck for Kaminari to have his girlfriend of over a year cheat on him.

After several, consecutive refreshes, the new video pops up and you let out a little scream because on the thumbnail is Kaminari Denki himself, clad in a white shirt and leather jacket. You click play and a giggling Kaminari is on your screen, saying, “Will that be cut out? Can we cut that out?” Then it’s the usual intro of Verified.

Kaminari is waving and introducing himself with a huge smile on his face. You admire your favorite artist through the screen and wonder when he will hold a meet and greet. I’m manifesting, you think, as you position yourself more comfortably in your couch.

“This song. . . It’s－ It’s my inner turmoil.” Huh. You’re not surprised. Songs written and sang with so much emotion strikes the listeners way harder than any other song. And the fact that Kaminari wrote it with his heart up his sleeves, the song meant a lot more to you.

As he goes on explaining every line, every lyric, you can’t help the same hurt blooming on your chest again. Everything he’s saying stabs right at your heart. Every word, though different in context when it comes to you, is like a kick to your chest. 21 Questions never felt so much like home right this moment.

“I never have to carefully shape sentences when I have some words to say. They’re falling from my mouth from the time that they hit my brain. I don’t have a brake in my mouth, okay?” There’s a pause and an intense stare at the camera. “I say whatever I think even before I realize what the － I’m saying.”

There’s a bleep and your heart almost bursts at the absolute cuteness when he instantly covered his mouth and his giggles sift through your phone’s speakers. So this is where the first clip on the video is from, when he asked if they can cut it out. But no matter how adorable his giggles were, Kaminari’s words are banging its way into your head.

“We were too perfect. We were. . . too wrapped up in our own world. Or maybe I was the only one wrapped up in something that was. . .” His sentence is left unfinished, but you felt it in your bones. It’s like a slap to the face. Yeah. Maybe he’s right. Maybe you were the only one wrapped up, maybe you were the only one attached. It seemed too good to be true, and you were so high up you didn’t realize Todoroki had gone down and Yaoyorozu was there to catch him.

You aren’t prepared for the next part though, because the man decided it was okay － totally fine! － to lean back and bare his whole neck while groaning － groaning! Any other human being will not survive this. What is he doing. You’re seconds away from hyperventilating as you double tap to replay that certain part. He wants you all dead. Yes. That must be it.

The video is close to ending, and as Kaminari says his last words, it tickles something awake in your heartbroken state.

“I can forget. And I will! And I will get on with my life and do the things I love and every day would be a happier day for me. Even without you.”

Even without Shouto, you’ll get by. Your world doesn’t revolve around him. There’s a lot of things you can do without invalidating your heartbreak, and maybe you’ll hold on to Kaminari’s words. Every day would be a happier day for me. It’s another thing you’re manifesting on, along with that meet and greet of Kaminari.

more notes: yes this is based off waterparks’s 21 questions pLEASE I FEEL LIKE AWSTEN’S CHAOTIC ENERGY IS A DIRECT COPY OF THE ONE KAMINARI EXUDES SO THIS IS PERFECT. anyways this series’ titles are going to be a bunch of waterparks songs.

[heedra]

In regards to your d&d is a bad system post, what would you recommend as an alternative? I always thought the huge amount of homebrew rules and lore was d&d's best quality, but i'm interested to see what you value in a ttrpg system

my experience with tabletop games is of course not comprehensive and based on my own experience, so dont take it as a full guide to every game out there, but here are a few games i have played and really enjoyed, or have heard repeatedly good things about: Exalted: This is my personal favorite ttrpg. It’s a very lore-heavy game and setting revolving around playing demigods in a specific, highly detailed mythic fantasy setting. It would be a huge joke to say it’s any easier to get into than DnD, or that the mechanics are any less bloated, and it’s definitely had its fair share of big problems in the past, but I really love where the newest edition (third edition)  has gone so far and is continuing to go. Worth checking out if you like over-the-top fantasy, digging into heavy lore, rolling a lot of dice, and using a whole bunch of intricate bits and pieces to build a character (all things ppl love about DnD). New World of Darkness/Chronicles of Darkness: These games are the newest iteration of the famous World of Darkness gameline originally put out by White Wolf Games. They’re a collection of different urban fantasy games (all of which use the same mechanics and can be mixed and matched) that focus on different supernatural creatures: vampires, werewolves, ghosts, changelings; even mummies and frankensteins! I especially love Changeling: The Lost, and enjoy playing CofD in general for the atmosphere it often evokes. If you’re looking to play a modern fantasy game, I’d give it a look.  I’ll be frank though: White Wolf also has a SHIT record when it comes to handling race in its games, and the classic World of Darkness line, especially Vampire and Werewolf, are some of the worst offenders. Chronicles of Darkness has come a long way since then in a lot of cases, especially with the second editions of a lot of its games coming out, but it’s still good to go into this one critically.

MASKS: A New Generation: This, and the next few games on this list, run on the Powered By The Apocalypse game engine- a set of game mechanics designed to be simple and flexible for making games with, that use little more than a pair of d6′s at times, mechanically. The games that use PbtA tend to be tailored for a specific concept and premise- and can be as bad or good as the creators can realize that premise. MASKS is a game about playing young, up-and-coming superheroes, and it rules for that purpose, in my experience. It manages to avoid being crunchy wrt superpowers and supports character roleplaying in a pretty cool way. There are other games for playing supers out there that are perhaps less specific in premise, but I love this one a lot.

Monster of the Week: If you have listened to TAZ, you might know of this one- it’s another PbtA game, and the gameplay the boys have of it in Amnesty is a great introduction to how many PbtA games operate. For those of you not familiar, Monster of the Week is a game themed around playing paranormal investigators, gumshoes, kids-on-bikes, or Scooby Gang style folks solving paranormal mysteries. My personal mileage with it varies, but it’s a GREAT intro game to both PbtA and tabletop roleplaying, especially given that it works well for shorter campaigns.

Blades In The Dark: The last PbtA game on this rec list, I haven’t played this one personally, but I’ve heard only good things about it. Blades is a game about playing a band of brigands, ne’er-do-wells, organized criminals, or assassins in a dark, Victorian-Gothic fantasy setting with a unique set of lore. I’ve heard it’s EXTREMELY FUN and effective at providing a great playspace for roguish, daredevil actions, and it’s unique in having a very cool mechanic where not only do the players have customizable sheets and stats, but their entire gang as a whole does as well. 

LANCER: Lancer is a good fucking game, whose mechanics are PERFECT for what it does; and what it does is allow you to play a mech pilot. If you aren’t playing a mech pilot, there’s no reason to play lancer- but if you are, god will you have a good time. This isn’t a flaw- it’s by design, and I urge people to check it out especially because of that and how it demonstrates that, sometimes, narrowing down on a specific concept of play actually improves the ability of a game to enhance that experience. Its rules for playing your PC outside of the mech are barebones but effective, and the rules for mech combat, and for building and customizing your mech, are extremely fun and accommodating to homebrew. The setting also has some pretty cool lore! FATE: Fate is less a tabletop game wholesale and more of a very simple, barebones system for running tabletop adventures. A lot of folks swear by it as as simple, easy jump-in point for the hobby, and a great tool for building game ideas that doesn’t constrain them by too many assumptions about setting and build. Chuubo’s Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine: I have not personally played Chuubos, but I would be loathe to leave it out of this list, because I know a lot of people who adore it and because it is a shining example of just how far away from DnD tabletop games can get in design and play concept. Chuubos divorces itself almost entirely from DnD’s assumptions of dice and chance mechanics- it’s an entirely diceless RPG where much of the theme and progression focuses on roleplaying through story arcs and character goals decided upon by the players. It works fantastically for slice of life and more whimsical, Ghibli-style adventure, but is capable of handling multiple genres and flavors of character arc! Jenna Moran’s other games, Nobilis and Glitch, are also very well-regarded and worth a look.

Other than that, I highly recommend looking around some in the indie ttrpg community! There are tons of diverse folks making tons of games that range from big, robust adventure rpgs to specific, conceptual microgames!

[theseerasures]

Conspicuous Media Consumption, 2020

it’s that time of year again! *saddest toot from the party horn*

for those of you just joining us: it’s a “consume a different content every week for 48 weeks of the year” challenge. for a longer explanation, check out last year’s write-up here, and as always, feel free to pop in and ask questions about any and all of this content.

(same disclaimer as last year too: content for this project ONLY here, and not certain...*looks at my billion Sad Cop Lady posts*...hyperfixations.)

(man remember when i was big into X-Men comics earlier this year? better times than these, if only because no one's discoursing about Emma Frost’s woobie/war criminal ratio anymore--her w/w, if you will)

(...i swear at one point i didn’t exclusively like platinum blondes but alas)

Bitter Root (comic, 1 issue finished 1/1/2020): still very cool on a basic concept level, but runs into the Image Comics problem of just not having enough content to keep my interest beyond that. part of that is on me, for picking it up again BEFORE the second arc rolled out, but the first five issues didn’t really follow (or resolve) any cohesive story either, so...meh.

Immortal Hulk (comic, 3 trades finished 1/17/2020): still not gonna be something i care deeply about (maybe one of Bruce’s Hulksonas dyed his hair???), but i do want to give kudos to Al Ewing for sheer consistency in terms of sustaining this level of quality storytelling month by month for more than two years now. working with the dense archive of the Hulk mythos and managing to make it interesting and thoughtful is impressive even if i personally would not expend the same effort.

Disco Elysium (game, finished 1/18/2020): honestly i should have twigged onto what this year was gonna be like when the third thing i drew from the barrel was pure uncut Eastern European flavored depression. i faintly recall people ragging on it for being pretentiously cynical, but i actually thought its core slid more towards idealism than people give it credit for. also gratified that i haven’t heard anything about Robert Kurvitz using slave labor to finish it, which is a thing we have to say about our video games now!!! fun.

Watchmen (TV, 7 episodes finished 1/27/2020): i am a fool who wants to believe in Damon Lindelof and I WAS RIGHT!!! honestly still cannot believe that he pulled off this highwire act with such deft aplomb. might be my favorite TV this year, which is a pretty high bar given how much TV i ended up watching.

On a Sunbeam (comic, finished 2/1/2020): Tillie Walden rightly deserves all the praise for inventive queer storytelling, but i will say that on reread--since i first read this as a webcomic--there ARE some issues with pacing here that clearly come from the foibles of its original intended medium. still just excellent, even if after some plot significant haircuts i was having trouble telling a few folks apart.

Lazarus (comic, 1 trade finished 2/8/2020): it’s so good and i want moooooorrrreee--though obviously Rucka and Lark have the right to take all the time they need. the newer longer issues work really well with the epic prestige drama vibes of the story! i’m into it.

The Good Place (TV, 4 seasons finished 2/18/2020): i’m gonna be super honest: i actually wasn’t a big fan of the finale, nor the last season as a whole. it felt like all of Eleanor’s flaws vanished for a majority of the season, and the Chidi-centric episode where they tried to give a legible justification for why he’s Like This was...i didn’t care for it. still, it’s so good and unique on the WHOLE that we’ll literally never get anything like this ever again, and that counts for a lot.

The Old Republic (game, finished 2/21/2020): it’s an MMO so it will never actually Be Finished so long as the servers aren’t shut down, but i caught up on the content i’d missed in the intervening months. Onslaught thus far has mostly been...kinda bland tbh; going back to Imps vs. Rebs after all the shakeups in the previous expansions feels like a waste.

High Road (album, finished 2/22/2020): someone should tell Kesha not to say that word!! otherwise i was very happy with this album, and happy FOR her even though we don’t know each other. being able to find joy again in the same genre of music you made while you were being horrifically exploited is very cool.

Young Justice (TV, 13 episodes finished 2/28/2020): given how much the middle stuff dragged--STOP KILLING YOUR HIJABI CHARACTER IN HORRIFIC WAYS--i was...actually kinda mad by how the end managed to stick the landing anyway. the day being saved by Vic’s self-acceptance and Violet’s sublime compassion was A+, and even the Brion/Tara switchup was a pleasant surprise, though it relied on me caring about Brion MUCH MORE than i actually did.

Manic (album, finished 2/29/2020): do people still care for/about Halsey? i feel like even That One Song that was on every tumblr gifset ever has kinda faded into obscurity at this point. this album was...okay. i feel like people give Halsey a pass for extremely obvious lyrical turns that they wouldn’t for other folks because of her subject material--which is fine. not really my cup of tea, but i also listened to lots of Relient K this year, so that’s probably a good thing.

Jade Empire (game, 3/10/2020): the only 3D-era Bioware game that didn’t franchise out, and for good fucking reason!!! the Orientalism and appropriation really haven’t aged well, and even beyond that the story was...standard Bioware faire. even my usual “my wife’s a bitch i love her” Bioware type didn’t do it for me, and i just ended up romancing no one. it did make me think a lot about what level of cultural borrowing is accepted nowadays, and why: people still look fondly at Avatar and talk about how ~accurate and respectful it was, for example, despite it being staffed almost entirely by white folks, and the Orientalism ALL OVER the monk class in DND is still fine for some reason.

Alif the Unseen (book, finished 3/31/2020): interesting to have read this AFTER reading The Bird King last year, because it highlights how the intervening years have shifted G. Willow Wilson’s thematic interest and improved her craft. i’m actually quite fond of how her characterization work is rougher here--Alif is extremely flawed to the point of being insufferable, but it makes his development by the end more satisfying. Dina is also just good and i love her

Baldur’s Gate (2 games, finished 5/31/2020): well, having finally finished the series i’m happy to say that it...still doesn’t really do it for me, sorry. any awesome story moments were overshadowed by the EXCRUCIATING inventory management system and the combat (i still don’t know what a THAC0 is and at this point i’m afraid to find out). these games crucially lack the Home Base that later Bioware games were so good about, and that (coupled with the huge cast of characters you can drop off and never see again) really hurts the intimacy for me. by the time we finally did get one it was the Hell Dimension in Throne of Bhaal, and i was just...trying to get through it. (yes, i did just say that about one of the most beloved expansions ever to one of the most beloved games ever.) THIS particular iteration of “my wife’s a bitch i love her” was very good, but the game wouldn’t let me romance her :(

The Underground Railroad (book, finished 6/19/2020): honestly what is there even left to say at this point! it was exactly as good as every critic on the planet said it was, even with my usual aversion to hype. draining and horrifying in turns but still insistent upon a future for Black folks.

Steven Universe (6 seasons and a mooooooviiieeee, finished 7/11/2020): yes, i DID finish the show and almost immediately begin a rewatch. this series is now one of my top five most formative things, and the amount of love and respect i have for it is incalculable. that said: i once again did not love how the central conflict of Future was resolved (just the resolution--i loved the finale just fine). for all of Steven’s breakdown was built up, resolving it with “EVERYONE HUG HIM UNTIL HE CRIES” felt...cheap, especially since up until this point the show had been so good about treating trauma and mental illness with the respect and nuance it deserves. it made me wish some of the earlier, less substantial episodes had been cut so we could spend more time at the end.

What It Is (comic, finished 8/19/2020): y’all i love Lynda Barry SO MUCH. for the longest time i was worried that One Hundred Demons was more a lightning in a bottle situation but every book of hers i pick up makes me feel obscure emotions i didn’t even realize existed. the compassionate way she’s able to describe her child self and how weird and fucked up she was (and still is) is honestly aspirational.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (TV, 5 seasons finished 9/26/2020): so here’s a reversal of what i’ve been complaining about with other shows: i was mostly lukewarm-to-warm about She-Ra, but the later seasons and the finale made me much more into it as a whole. more shows should improve in stakes and overall quality as they age tbh!! i still don’t actively love Catradora (my sole quibble with season 5 actually has to do with the way Adora kept backsliding as a character to make certain Plot/Relationship things happen), but i’m very happy for them nonetheless. i can certainly appreciate a show that will go for High Feeling over tight plot. dark horse standout moments: trees growing everywhere proving that Perfuma Was Right, and Hordak and Adora seeing each other--that weirdly intimate moment of recognition.

Fetch the Bolt Cutters (album, finished 10/7/2020): again i find myself not having much to say that no one else has said. it’s good! once again love it when an artist reclaims something they’d attached with negative affect (anxiety, depression, disordered eating) for better and brighter things.

Solutions and Other Problems (comic, finished 10/25/2020): i was very into Allie Brosh’s ambition with this book, which feels weird to say but i stand by it. it’s cool to see an artist try to make a new medium work for them instead of just sticking to what already works. not all the experimentation was 100% effective, but it was still delightful and occasionally devastating to read, so.

Legend of Zelda (3 games: Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Link Between Worlds, finished 11/1/2020): this was the third time i’d played Ocarina of Time, which made it the nice, comforting groove i settled into before Majora’s Mask blatted me in the face. i’m not usually a completionist Zelda person because...the gameplay in Zelda is bad, do not at me it just is, but i really felt like i HAD to be one for Majora’s Mask since the whole point is to get attached to the banalities of the town. i’m sure nobody’s surprised that i loved it, even if it gave me an existential crisis about how life goes on in the game for NPCs when you’re not there to save them from it, and there’s not enough time to save them all all the time (also not a surprise to anyone: Romani and Cremia gave Personal Feelings). Link Between Worlds...bad. not like in a “this is a bad story by every measurable gauge” way, but i was already struggling with the 2D playstyle shift enough that for the whole story to end with some “yes it’s v sad that Lorule is Like This but trying to steal Hyrule’s privilege is Even Worse Actually” noblesse oblige bullshit left a VERY poor taste in my mouth, this year of all years. i did audibly gasp when Ravio took off his mask, though. i’m currently playing Breath of the Wild in cautious increments; it’s the first time i’ve enjoyed early Zelda gameplay, but if they wanted fully voiced cutscenes i wish they got voice actors who...knew what words sound like.

folklore (album, finished 11/6/2020): my belief that Taylor Swift is Just Fine continues, i’m afraid. i LIKED this album, don’t get me wrong, and respect her constant drive to innovate, but i didn’t love it substantially more or less than any other Taylor Swift album. mostly i’m just tickled by how she thinks leaning into the indie aesthetic means borrowing Vita Sackville-West’s entire wardrobe, though i will admit to feeling Something when she swore in a song. i think it was like. savage vindication?? you go ahead and swear, Taylor Swift. you deserve it.

Shore (album, finished 11/19/2020): do people still care about the Fleet Foxes? i think there was some Drama with Josh Tillman a while back but i don’t remember where the discourse landed with who was being more problematic. it was nostalgic for me to listen to their new album--made me remember being an undergrad who exclusively listened to men who mumbled and played acoustic guitar all over again.

Star Wars (3 movies: original trilogy, finished 11/27/2020): there is So Much bad Star Wars these days that every time i rewatch the original trilogy i’m afraid that they will suddenly be bad, but guess what! they’re not. i love these children and their hot mess stories, i love that Lando doesn’t know how to say his best friend’s name. what stood out to me this time was the way Obi-Wan described the Force in A New Hope, which strongly implied that ANYONE can be Force Sensitive; that obviously faded with each subsequent movie, but part of me does wish they’d kept it.

X of Swords (comics, 22 issues finished 12/5/2020): i am enjoying Hickman’s X-lines!!! not so much here for the Grand Conspiracy or whatever, but the character work and highkey weirdness is fabulous--they FEEL like X-Men, despite all the shakeups in-universe. this crossover is a nice microcosm of all that: grandiloquently all over the place, but still full of cool standout moments and genuine hilarity. ILLYANA DOESN’T KNOW HOW TO SPELL MAGIC.

Fire Emblem (4 games: Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Awakening, finished 12/14/2020): this was the thing that i was closest to giving up early on, but i ended up hyperfixating on it instead. that’s a credit to what the gameplay does to my lizard brain more than anything else, because the story and character writing is...insipid. it was very bizarre to witness this franchise blunder around with its animal-people racism allegory around the same time i was getting back into RWBY, and ITS animal-people racism allegory blunders. Awakening was the first time i felt anything for the franchise beyond “teehee red units disappear make exp bar go up and brain go ding,” so i’m excited for more mature storytelling in subsequent games (they MUST get better. they MUST). the child husbandry thing is...very bad tho, and Apotheosis being “challenging” entirely through the game changing all the rules is also bad.

once again no vidya games that came out this year--i’ll probably pick up Spiritfarer or Hades after the New Year, though (or maybe TLOU II! but probably not. sry Laura and Ashley). more TV and franchises this year, which made me feel In Touch with the Children but was also kinda exhausting. nothing was so egregiously terrible i dropped it without finishing! in a year like this that feels almost like an accomplishment

[your-turn-to-role]

ayyyyy happy 4/13 have my second list of classpects, vox machina edition! (@lostsometime to add to the homestuck au)

(m9 here)

vex - thief of mind

vax - rogue of blood

percy - witch of light

keyleth - page of breath

scanlan - thief of life

grog - prince of rage

pike - heir of space

tary - witch of mind

first off, there are a couple copies here, and they don’t have a time player, so vox machina on their own could not win the game. but hey, weird plot shit exists, and the alpha kids managed it by combining their session with the beta kids, so who knows how this would go

(explanations under the cut)

1) vex - thief of mind

vex has a lot of ideas about her sense of self. but when you get right down to it, none of them are actually about her sense of self, and rather about how people see her. image is important to mind players, but it’s not really linked with identity. in fact, the canon description of mind players states they have very fluid, shifting concepts of identity, it’s far more important to them that they remain rational and have a logical line of reasoning than sticking to things just because they feel right or wrong. and i think this is very true for vex, she doesn’t often doubt herself, but she doesn’t really know who she is, beyond just what she’s trying to emulate or avoid.

thief bc she’s still one of the stealth twins, it is very her thing, but she’s definitely the louder of the two, the thief demands to be known, the rogue quietly assists. she’s headstrong, stubborn, and the world owes her everything it’s taken from her, which she definitely plans to steal back. and honestly that’s her right and i love her.

2) vax - rogue of blood

god i really love the fact that the twins are a thief/rogue pair, it not only fits who they are as people but vex being the active version of vax’s passive class and vice versa fits so well

(also fun fact, i have something of a personality test/checklist i grade characters on when i’m struggling to figure out their class or feel like i’m being biased towards one particular classpect. there’s 15 possible points per class, most characters will get a highest score of maybe 9 or 10, homestuck characters get something like 12-13. vax, however, does what no one else has ever done, and scored all 15 points in rogue. he is more rogue per rogue than any rogue in homestuck. 100% pure distilled rogue boy.)

personality quizzes aside though, he really is so obviously a rogue. he’s got everything of the thief archetype built into his entire character, but while a homestuck thief steals by their own will and for their own benefit, all of the rogue’s same actions go towards supporting their friends. also, as a passive class, their decisions tend to be less personal drive based and more guided by their aspect, as if the universe was working through them, which is definitely the case for our champion of the raven queen. they’ve been described in canon as the robin hood class, rebellious, but in an altruistic way. true punk. fuck the system, love recklessly

blood players need a family. they draw their strength from the bonds they have with those around them, they’re stubborn as all hell, especially when it seems like there’s no way out of a situation, but it’s in determination to protect their chosen family and keep everyone safe and happy. if they’re leaders, they’re inspirational ones rather than commanding ones. and this is “dramatic speeches about teamwork and morality” vax, “what the fuck do we have in this world except for moments with each other” vax, “how lucky i have been to have had all of you” vax. what else could he be?

3) percy - witch of light

so percy’s an interesting one, because i kinda wanna give him two classpects? like, if you classpect percy before or during the briarwood arc, he’s a prince of light. after that, he becomes way more of a witch. (though, to be fair, light players and witches are both incredibly prone to getting possessed, so, maybe he was a witch all along and just acted really prince-y)

he’s definitely an active class, no doubt about it. percy will fight gods to achieve his own ends. prince, being the most active class, and one designed to cause destruction, definitely suits orthax percy. but then things change, and you realise what he actually is

witches are manipulator classes, like knights, but active manipulator classes. they can’t create things out of nothing like some classes do, but instead bend and twist and transform their aspect (and the world around them, using their aspect) to achieve their goals. percy’s human, and not magic. he doesn’t have any particular special abilities in order to do things, he gets by on ingenuity and reckless bravery. that post that was going around a while ago about how all of vox machina are basically gods and percy’s just a guy with a gun does well to prove the point here, because he keeps up anyway. he’s made mistakes and there are things in the world now that he can’t change, but he does his best to work within those constraints and make as good of a world as he can with what he has

and what he has, usually, is knowledge. which is the main dominion of the light aspect, along with luck (and, you know, taliesin and dice rolling). light players are scholars first and foremost, but very rarely bookish scholars, instead the kind of scholars that think they can make a demon deal and get away with it because they’re clever enough for that, and also they’re extra enough that they’d do it anyway for the aesthetic

4) keyleth - page of breath

this was the easiest of all of these for me to do, it just slots so neatly into place. pages are a slow moving class that have to work their way around all the side quests before they get a lot of their power, but after that they’re powerhouses. they’re easily underestimated, by others and by themselves. keyleth takes a while to come to terms with herself and her power and her effect on the world, most of the plot takes place within her slowly completing her aramente, she often worries she won’t be good enough for anything that’s expected of her, but once she hits level 20 she is a master of the elements, a true leader of her people, and literally unkillable.

breath fits for two reasons. the first is being the aspect of freedom, of acting without being controlled by anyone else’s thoughts or decisions. and keyleth, for all her anxiety and all her bad luck, has never made a choice she didn’t agree with. along with vax she’s the first to speak up when she feels like the group’s moral choices aren’t holding up to her standards, when they’re moving in a direction that isn’t right. the second is that it’s the aspect of air, and the wind, and she’s literally the leader of the air ashari. she can and does in fact do the windy thing

5) scanlan - thief of life

we’ve covered life already in my nott/veth explanation, but it really is so scanlan. look at this excerpt and tell me it’s not written for scanlan shorthalt

[If you're poisoned, chances are the Life-bound have something for what ails ya. This applies to both physical and mental suffering, though it might not be a cure you'll like. They also have the tendency to put other's needs before their own, which never ends well for anyone, because the Life-bound can grow bitter if they feel their own self-care has had to be shunted aside.]

figuring out class was harder? a lot of vox machina classes are pretty difficult to figure out. prince would work to an extent because of scanlan’s self destructive tendencies, bard would work to an extent because he often feels like things are out of his hands, but i think i’m going with thief. scanlan’s more of an active class, despite playing support in dnd, he’s very self motivated and not one to listen much to the guidance of the universe. thief i feel fits with the headstrong attitude, the creative out of the box thinking, and the need for attention in a very specific way (less so having people celebrate you, scanlan enjoys that but can easily shrug it off if it doesn’t happen, it’s more causing things for the sake of knowing and having other people know that you caused them)

6) grog - prince of rage

honestly this is the one i’d be most willing to bend on? it, took me forever to come up with any kind of classpect for grog, he seems to resist being classpected. i know a lot about him as a person, but translating that into either class or aspect was just hard. but i’ve gone with prince because grog’s never stopped for anyone (except maybe pike), because it’s a destruction based class, because it’s the most active on the scale, and grog is definitely one to go do things purely because he wants to do things and wants to do them now.

rage because rage players are about truth at all costs, even if that cost is often destabilizing entire systems and leaving the rubble to pick itself back up. and it makes me think about how grog has never really wanted to disguise himself, and especially about just before the kevdak fight - he knew he would probably get killed if he went back there as himself, but he refused to go in under false pretenses, because that wouldn’t be right

7) pike - heir of space

ashley’s just always drawn to those heirs. i think though with pike it definitely is a consequence of her being in and out a lot, because she’s not just an heir, she’s an heir of space.

heirs tend to stumble into their role rather than creating it or seeking it out. on a meta level, ashley only created pike because the team needed a cleric and she worked it out from there, but as far as pike herself is concerned, she doesn’t really know what she’s supposed to be doing or what her purpose is, but she’s been trying to do her best to follow sarenrae’s teachings, trying to do her best to guide her friends, and hoping that nothing goes wrong along the way.

space, too, is an aspect of patience. it’s about valuing the journey more than the destination, it’s about seeing what the universe has in store for you and trusting that it’s just as likely to turn out good as it is bad - you’ll know when the time comes to step in, at which point space players are pretty fierce fighters. but for now, for pike, it’s trying to help her friends one step at a time

8) tary - witch of mind

tary is like percy but cheating. he has a lot more resources to work with bc he just goes out and buys shit. but the witch reasoning still stands, they are very similar people in that respect, good at working within a set of restraints so well you don’t even notice the restraints are there

mind rather than light because, tary doesn’t quite hunger after knowledge in the same way. instead he’s much more concerned with the application of it, of how to get from point a to point b as efficiently as possible, and how that benefits him. (also because he’s not nearly as extra as light players. have you met light players? like i love them but jesus christ. who let them be Like That)

[retphienix]

Credits are rolling as I type because I saw fit to forego capturing since I didn’t REALLY do a live playthrough on the blog and instead just showed off moments here and there.

Just wanted to say, that was damned good.

It gave off such a dnd vibe to me and since I’ve yet to indulge in that truly it was a nice romp.

But seriously, what an awesome game with even more potential if more were to come in the series. Phenomenal writing and a very simple but ingenious gimmick of making magic simple but full of potential since it interacts with the elements and environment. A+ stuff there.

Did get a chuckle out of the ending slides surrounding a CaC gaining divinity basically just sliding the camera onto the same image 6 times where it clearly would be different slides if you used a default character lol.

What to dwell on...

Combat in the game was phenomenal! But it’s funny to me how it ended up in MY party.

Since I made the grave mistake of letting all the companions maintain their default classes I ended up with a rather eclectic combo and my OWN stubborness lead to me sticking to that for the most part.

Beardy as a full on warrior in the vein of my old WoW character. He ended up being a friggin’ godsend to the team since I ended up going more physical damage than magic (but still a 2/2 split team count wise TECHNICALLY).

Going heavy in 2h weapons and stength just resulted in him tearing everyone apart at a moments notice all while having his hand on that idol of resurrection so I could literally never be too risky with him. (A touch of a difficulty equalizer in some cases and complete nullification in other instances sadly)

Beast ended up molded to straight hydro for heals all while wielding the biggest shield I could manage at any moment and stacking con/int. He was bulky, sure, but didn’t really abuse that much and instead spent every battle freezing everyone with freezing blast and rain, or saying screw it and using blood rain with his torturer perk so everyone bled while he spammed heals. It was effective but mostly just CC.

Fane was the second MVP if not total MVP? Beardy really did the most all said, but Fane? A Necessity At All Times.

He was holding the second idol, though rarely needed it (neither did Beardy to be honest, but still).

Fane went all in on summoning, and aero as his secondary for when he ran out of spells etc.

His incarnate was insane through this run, I love how summoning can honestly give you either a huge physical damage output buff or any element you please. His summoning is why my 2/2 split party ended up leaning heavy on physical, because it made more sense to abuse a physical incarnate’s output than to constantly grab a water one (for restoration magic and water damage) or fire or whatever else.

Having powerful shock spells was nice too. But mostly he summoned and then buffed his summons. I INTENDED to stack some poison related spells on someone for healing him, but Fane ended up going the entire game after act 1 without healing outside of bottles and he did just fine. God that sleeping bag or what have you is op for out of combat and who needs healing in combat when you have an insta-rez on death and tons of damage going out.

Oh and by the end I decided to spend like 144k on a ring with 1/3rd the magic defense on it because he permanently poisoned him. So that was nice.

Sibelle did fuck all the whole time.

Which is rude to say, sure, and you’d be right to say that. I ended up enjoying Sib’s character and she did put out some nice burst damage in physical form at the start of most fights.

But I never gave her a chance and it shows. (in terms of build).

She joined as a worthless rogue with no invis or survivability and dual wield burst being her only tool, and instead of fixing that with some invis or survivability, I said “Sure, Sib. You’re a lethal assassin. Tell me how that works out.” and she proceeded to spend like 60-70% of the fights in the game face down in the pavement because after her initial burst of damage she’d die and I couldn’t be arsed to care.

She lived the final fight just fine though, go figure. She didn’t go down once and actually pulled her weight for more than just the first round. How novel a concept, Sib. Maybe next time grab some other talents outside of just scoundrel and dual wield.

What a self burn where I say I stubbornly made a bad character and it’s their fault. lol

Speaking of those idols real quick, it cracks me up how the one fight I completely botched was saved by them. When I ran into the paladin leader in the basement I decided to take him out since I heard he was with the black ring prior. I killed HIM just fine, but the rest of them were 2-3 levels above me and were rough as all hell.

Eventually it was Beardy, alone, in a corner, surrounded, and after like an hour of combat he finally fell. Everyone de-aggro’d. He rezzed with the idol. And I calming rezzed my team and walked out having killed the only person I needed to (and a couple extra). That was an amusing moment.

I love how the game would occasionally, with a straight face, do the most fantasy trope things possible and it felt FRESH since no one would dare do them today.

Things like trolls guarding bridges and a lot more I’m blanking on because of the credits rolling. I just appreciated that and found it really fun.

Credits just finished so I was reminded of the gift bags and what a damned shame!

When I first read up on them it was through a video showcasing how they can break the game etc A vid I’m sure someone would be aware of it they were aware of the subject matter.

Apparently at one point you could use them whenever to change and add features and still get credit for achievements/trophies etc. But that changed at some point so all these interesting gameplay tweaks are just sullied by you not getting credit for stuff.

Sure, that’s dumb of me to imply, but you know I’m right. No matter how much we fight the implication that trophies matter they still do to some degree. I, for one, like scrolling through them as a sort of list of past exploits, I even get some nice memories from doing just that, but activate a bag and you don’t get to write down that achievement.

Meaningless, sure, but enough of a dissuasion to prevent me doing it :/ For now at least. They really are a list of fun features to toggle! But why I harp on it is that some seem like 100% quality of life and nothing else and you still can’t use them without it disabling trophies :/ Things like “Sprint” for moving about the world faster, lord.

Achievements are such a stain on gaming, I swear. For a hundred reasons, and for making some like myself in this instance AVOID fun because we don’t “get credit” oh fuck off trophy. If you didn’t exist I’d have had more fun, hence why going back to play older titles that don’t have them is such a pure joy.

Bleh. I play into it AND hate it.

Anyways.

What’s there to say. Divinity 2 was a blast, I do wish for a more refined one later on but this was such a unique experience none the less.

Roughly 110 hours of gameplay (minus AFK time I do in damn near every game so I’ll say it was like 100 hours) and I’m left too speechless to say half the things that came to mind while playing. Darn it.

A+ stuff. I’m honestly still impressed that such a content loaded single player experience is ACTUALLY all that and able to do 4 player coop.

Sure it’s technically understandable, but in terms of what games, you know, generally do? That’s unthinkable to me. That’s the kind of thing that’s reserved for tabletop, hence my early mention of dnd. You don’t usually see a story driven things like this being coop on console- and if you do it’s lightly handled in a way where the coop player doesn’t matter. Like Fable 2 henchmen, or Fable 3 where the coop player might as well not exist and just shows up to do fights and follow the main player.

That’s the term.

Most coop rpgs have the MAIN player and then coop buds assuming they implement coop.

This game is more of a 4 MAIN players all at once situation and I’m entirely unfamiliar with that in gaming other than tabletop.

OBVIOUSLY this wasn’t too much of a big deal for my single player playthrough, but other than that it was almost always on my mind and lead to me starting 2 other runs with friends :) (that both pretty much died out because they both struggle to find time to play games as is so sitting down and coordinating 3 people for 2 separate coop runs of a 100 hour game wasn’t really happening- now I understand dnd groups pain lol)

Enough rambling when I admit I have lost all my talking points. Good game.

[raccoon-anarchy]

I’ve realised that over the past year- and decade- that the greatest talent I’ve accrued is being able to drink a lot of booze. Maybe that’s just the comedown talking but it’s probably true. I want to do good things and have motivation but self motivation is actually so hard for me. Even the existential thing of knowing I’m going to die one day doesn’t motivate me. I think at that point it won’t matter what I did or didn’t do. I won’t know I ever existed. A wasted life would mean nothing in the end. But I’m living now and I gotta live with me now and I guess I need to be the person I want to be or hope to be, desire to be. I don’t know exactly what that means or will mean. I don’t know if I’m good enough of a student to actually be a psychologist, a good enough person to have long term friends, good hearted enough to love or be loved or deserve love, a good enough talker to be a charmer, a good enough writer to do that - which was one constant of my childhood. I just don’t know. I want to do something about all that though, right now while I lay on my friends couch trying to sleep for the twentieth time this month. I wonder if and for how long this pang of existential panic will last, and how long it might motivate me. Maybe it’ll be gone by morning. I also want to take acid, drink and smoke cigarettes. I wonder if I’ll allow myself to enjoy, really enjoy, the end of the decade, without the underlying anxiety about my uncertain personhood and future that I’m pretty sure has been haunting me for the last ten or so years and probably keeps me from doing the things I love, loving the things I’m doing or loving in general. I would like to enjoy the end of the decade. Relaxed. Drink, be happy or, rather, content. Maybe I’ll be blessed with a couple hours of contentment. Frankly those moments have happened, maybe more often than last year or the year before in fact. I want to stretch them out like a child playing with a rubber band going longer and longer until I can stretch it out between each outstretched arm by my finger tips, and slowly bring my hands together to touch gently, rather than snapping shut or appart completely. But I also don’t want to be a hedonistic gremlin. That would be counter intuitive, and I would worry about doing nothing with my life instead of enjoying it. Balance is part of what I need. Dedication and focus, joy and peace. Maybe I can have both. Both interwoven aspects of that rubber band, like a Möbius strip. Wouldn’t that be nice. I’ve been thinking about resolutions for new year, the new decade, not telling anyone just considering them quietly. Nothing has stuck out as relevant, none of those concrete goals that I have pondered have seemed possible or worth it. But balance, that Möbius strip rubber band, getting the balance right and stretching it out, and not hating myself when I fuck it up, not just giving it up, that might just be a good concept. And then everything else will fall into place. This will hopefully still be a possibility when I wake up. And I think a week from now I’ll reflect on it and see if it still fits. And the week after that. And the week after that. Let’s see...

I also think I’m dealing with a little bit of heartbreak. I’m thinking about Nancy less and less these days and I’ve settled on the fact that she never really liked me all that much and that’s okay. She’s sweet and smart and I hope we keep talking when we both can. But more pertinently, I didn’t really realise how much I liked Haley until I realised she had to go. Until she told me she wouldn’t dance unless I held her hand, until we sat and drank coffee on the car ride back, when she made me promise to keep her updated on the DND game, and to take care of myself. It was probably obvious, even earlier. It probably should have been obvious to me. When we stood on stage at work and just looked each other in the eye smiling, while we finished whatever we had to do before going back to work. Stuff like that. But it always felt like I was seeing myself from a distance just a little bit, like I wasn’t really real, or there. Like it wasn’t me falling- well falling in love is a bit bold- but growing feelings- but like I was watching it happen to someone else. She once said that whenever she thought she had me pinned as a person I’d do something new and she smiled and shook her head. She said the things I did in my spare time were super cool and when I said I couldn’t flirt because I only had three topics worth of interesting conversation she raised an eyebrow said that sounds good. I don’t think she liked me in any way like how I think I liked her. She’s just sweet like that, a lot of people said that, and I know of one person who definitely did have a crush on her. Maybe it was all just the pill I took that’s re colouring everything that happened but frankly I don’t think so. I think I should give myself a little more credit here. I just didn’t really realise, expect or want to. And not in a bitter way either. In the same vein of her not liking me like that, she was three years my senior, my freaking manager for most of the time I knew her and a little runaway- travelling all the time, been to almost every continent and I don’t think will ever be able to stop the wanderlust. She’s going to South America for two months then Canada for two years. She thought it was amazing that I had long term goals to teach round out my career at 60 something years old teaching psychology and that she wasn’t that well planned. I told her I thought it was amazing that she was doing what she loves, travelling all over the world to beautiful places and living. She also doesn’t know that the foundations of all my plans stand in went concrete, along with my whole character. Neither does anyone else. Maybe everyone feels like this sometime, or all the time, and this collection of feelings is nothing new. This is probably very true.

A little heartbreak is fair enough. It’s honest. A small, honest tragedy just for me. It’s good. I hope I see Haley again. Hopefully soon. I’m not holding my breath though. Go and wander, and I’ll be self indulgent and hope every now and then you’ll put on one of the playlists I made, the ones you liked, and spare a brief thought for me. I hope if I see you again you’ll be as happy as I remember you being and I hope we hug and maybe dance but only badly. I hope you wouldn’t want it any other way. I’m allowed this little feeling of self indulgence. It’ll be mine to keep and smile about. I don’t mind if you don’t share any of the other feelings I think I have, and I don’t mind if I don’t have them either if and when we meet again.

Is this what life is? People you care about coming and going? Like a passing breeze carries them away. And holding on to small indulgences. I wonder who holds small indulgences of me.

My phones almost dead.

This time next decade I’ll be thirty one and I wonder what kind of person I’ll be. That’s scary. I hope he’s a good one, I want him to be. We’ll build our Möbius strip together.

It’s three thirty eight am., New Year’s Eve 2019. want to go and have a smoke. I wonder if I’ll be the same person when I come back from it.

[thepeachpen]

my thoughts have been simmering for a few days and i need to put them down in words SOMEWHERE. though this is very long and very whiny so no one is obligated to read

in regards to wow, my enjoyment of the game has always hinged on creating characters to interact with the world, and weaving stories about them in regards to the events that unfold in canon. this game was my introduction to roleplaying with more than just one person (an old friend of mine and i would make ocs and rp them amongst ourselves for about any and all media we were collectively into, and she actually got me into wow to start). since then i’ve always had to weave character backstories to keep myself interested in a game, any game. 

but with wow particularly, after my initial try at rping (which ended up being high school cliques, blood elf edition with a lot of drama and bullshit) i stopped hanging in public circles and just watched from afar. but i also felt i was missing out on fun events and interactions, so every expansion i’d be like “this is it, today i actually roleplay and make friends.” but i never get to that point. i always stop short and there are a few reasons why.

when i look at other rpers, even in a casual setting, i feel like i’m playing catch-up. i joined the game at the tail end of mists of pandaria. so i didn’t have any experience or reputation in the four expansions prior to that. everyone had all of these relationships and stories already built with numerous people and they were always interacting with people they knew. which is natural for people to do, but i always felt awkward strolling around stormwind or some city and wanting to get involved, but all of the people loitering were already engaged in conversations and it felt rude to interrupt them. as time went on, my anxiety kind of grew and grew until i stopped actually marking myself as in-character, because i knew i wasn’t ever going to get up to roleplay. i was just lingering and reading conversations and rp profiles to pass the time, then i’d log off and go to bed. 

another part of the problem is that i have no goddamn attention span. i create a character, am super invested in them for a few months, then some new concept comes up and i go “oooh! i want to explore that!” and i create a new character to do so. then i focus on the new oc for a while, spot a new concept, then the cycle repeats. every expansion i’m coming up with new characters to explore very specific concepts and by the time something new comes around i abandon them and move on. this only compounds with the lack of reputation and anxiety at intruding on pre-established stories. because i always wear a new face and no one has time to get to know it before i move on. this is an issue in like, every single one of my interests. i haven’t touched characters or stories in years because i found something New and Fun to work on instead. 

the only character i’ve managed to use on more than one occasion for rp in wow wasn’t even originally created for the game. he was a completely separate character that i adjusted to fit into the game. and that’s the only reason he’s held my attention for any span of time. because i can just, pluck him back out and develop him separate if i get bored of the current expansion’s content.

there’s also the matter of i just don’t have the time to cultivate any sort of standing in more than one media anymore. i’m out of the house for 12 hours a day during the week and then i get home, make dinner and spend an hour with family, then two hours max doing whatever for free time and then i go to bed. there’s so little in an mmo you can get done in two hours. leveling new characters is a slog, and by the time they’re max level and can interact with the content i created them for, i’m bored of them and the story has moved on. so this only compounds the envision, create, discard cycle. not to mention that these days i have to pick between any number of activities to dedicate my two hours too. not in the mood for an mmo? play minecraft or draw instead. and then i feel even further behind because i could have run two dungeons in that span of time, but i chose not to and whoops content and community have already moved on. i also feel that if i don’t create content for a character (specifically art), no one is going to be interested in them but i have to grapple with “draw or level” every night and end up getting frustrated. 

so every expansion i come up with some new character, hyperfocus on them, and never use them until they eventually fall away to the side. even now, after not having played the game for however many months, i see the new expansion content and go “oh boy! time to create a death knight!” who i’ll painstakingly level and then abandon. if anyone has glanced at my toyhouse folder for wow, there’s over a dozen characters in there and all have been forgotten and unused for however long. and it’s likely none will ever see the light of day again unless they get re-purposed (like aen’ithri, who had so little story work done on her i was able to just pluck her base concept up and move her to dnd without more than two minutes thoughts. that’s how brief my interest in her and her wow story was).

tldr: i have no attention span, no time, and no frame of mind to enjoy a game i so desperately love. wow was my first mmo and i really want to be a part of the community, but i always feel like i’m not good enough or moving too slow. and i’m so tired of it all.

[smcadam]

Countdown Campaign. 6. Mechanics

So, while thinking about our dnd campaign, there’s a few things to think about that are thematic, flavourful and narration. Then there is elements that are mechanics, they are game rules we can change, tweak and alter, to reinforce the fiction into the game.      

Now, 5e is great because there are TONS of these. It’s easy to add homebrew rules in- though it’s always best for new beginners to learn to walk before running, I’ve got some experience. The main things we can think about alterring are:     

-Level Range- Where does the campaign start and stop? This decides how squishy, tough or complicated our PCs get. I like level 1 and 2 for being mortal, and I consider levels 4-10 a sweetspot for campaigns, so we’ll aim to end around level 7-9. 

Now, as to which, there’s a pattern to all classes in 5e. Level 7 is fourth level spells, Level 8 is an ASI/Feat, Level 9 is fifth level spells- do we want to block off stuff like Greater Restoration, Raise Dead and Teleportation Circle? No, they’re not bad spells, and they feel EPIC for the highest level players will reach.        

-Rest Mechanics- D&D’s difficulty relies on resource management. These resources- Health, Spells and Abilities, refresh on a rest, and in a typical game, after a night camped out. It is possible for a “Gritty” game to make it take a week to heal up, encouraging downtime. We’re not a downtime type game. We’re a ticking clock. 

Therefore I feel like faster Short Rests work for us- a twenty minute breather means no spells will really carry over, but I think Long Rests should need comfort. Inns, taverns, safehouses, etc. That means that a journey across the wilderness is effectively a dungeon- you’re not getting your big spells back until you complete the journey, or you turn back. And it gives an onus to check in with places to stay- that five gold to sleep indoors is well worth it now!

-Experience- In the default rules, overcoming obstacles gives xp, which contributes to levelling up. Normally I prefer milestone xp, wherein progress and major achievements grant such levels and the party stays together. However, since we want a slightly grittier, perhaps unequal experience, then I think classic Experience will do.      

-Inventory- In the default rules, you can carry a certain weight, and there are weights provided for anything and everything. I love the concept of the party getting a wagon, pack animals, or such, but I don’t actually care to book keep THIS much. So we’ll keep a vague inventory concept, and if they get a cart, then plenty of extra space.      

-Guns- So, we want guns and cowboys in our campaign. And shockingly, even in the default DMG (pg268), there are gun rules! Are they complex? No. Are they as complicated as any other non-magical weapon? Yeah. But do they capture that showdown at high noon vibe? Not really. But they seem to be a good starting point, and we can always make magical special guns later, or look into gunslinger classes if a player is really enthused on that concept.         

-Classes- Speaking of, sometimes it can be cool to restrict the classes and subclasses available in a campaign- if you’re trying to go for a “no gods” setting, then clerics and paladins might seem a little weird. I don’t really mind, so no changes here.      

-Races- Similar to above, do we want to limit the race selection for this world? Yeah. I do. I haven’t decided on a full short list yet, but once we know what people live in this world, that’ll be the selection.

-Feats- Little optional ability packs, I always love using them. And while we don’t want our PCs getting too tough for zombies to threaten, I think using Feats as possible quest rewards is a great way to compensate for a rather bleak campaign setting.     

-Crits- Rolling a natural 20 is a definite hit, and double dice damage on an Attack Roll, but is not an automatic success in other rolls. Rolling a 1 is always a miss or a failure, but I will try to have players fail dynamically. 

-Deaths Door/Injuries- In default 5th Edition, you can go down to 0 hp, get healed, and have no consequences. I dislike this... ease around the 0 hp state, and I’ve previously used a rule that essentially gives a chance of injuries or permanent issues each time you hit 0 hp, or are hit for massive damage. 

That’s a good summary- there’s possibility for other homebrew rules, but these are significant, campaign defining facets, and now that we’ve reasoned them out, we can see a bit of a shape emerging. Risky but not unforgiving, versatile but not too complex. 

-Level Range- 2-9

-Rest Mechanics- Quick Short Rest, Safe Long Rest

-Experience- Default

-Inventory- Loose

-Guns- DMG modified

-Classes- Unrestricted      

-Races- Short List

-Feats- On, and rewards

-Crits- Default

-Deaths Door- Injury Risk

[nomadicism]

Do you think the nostalgia goggles for VLD is hurting the show? Maybe this is a biased opinion but I've been seeing people less excited about S7 because of the way the writers go out of their way to make the Lion Switch 'work' when it just can't anymore( for example. removing Shiro's bond to black in the most undignified way being the biggest and ongoing outcry in the fandom.). It's almost like people enjoyed the show more when it started out doing its own thing.

Hi thank you for the Ask! (this answer is a long one)

I don’t know if it’s nostalgia goggles…at least…most of the fandom should be too young to have them? Or did you mean the writers?

I grew up with DotU, and I don’t mind the nods to DotU except in very specific instances, and a lot of that has to do with how the show affected me as a child in the 80s. There are two things that I judge every iteration of Voltron on (not gonna go there right now though), and it has to do with a few things that I hated from the Lion seasons of DotU. The Vehicle Voltron season of DotU had very little in it that I disliked, so any reboot of Vehicle Voltron would probably disappoint me, my nostalgia goggles would definitely be on tight, I can own that.

Trying not to harsh everyone’s dash with two critical posts in a row, so the rest in after the “read more.”

I have no strong opinions about the lion swap (but I sympathize with those that do), except for one tiny nitpick about how it appears as though they dropped the lion-bonding premise from S1-S2, which might relate to what you’re saying about “people enjoyed the show more when it started out doing its own thing.”

That was S1-S2, and the overall tone of those seasons is what had me stay around for S3 even though I was extremely skeptical for how they would write Lotor’s character (which relates to the two things that I judge every iteration of Voltron on). S3-S6 may as well be a different show, but I don’t think that’s due to lifting moments or concepts from DotU. I think this is more about tone, and likely, too much going on all at once and not enough episodes to pace those things better…that can be very subjective though.

While I enjoyed S3-S5 and there are moments and concepts from S6 that I enjoyed, the Things I’ve Already Bitched About sucked the joy right out of the show for me. I don’t hold a negative opinion about how Shiro ends up (no longer Black Paladin?), but there is something awkward there, and “undignified” is certainly a word that I would use to describe the team standing around Kuron’s body at the end. I don’t want to dwell on that…but ew.

I’ve avoided posting about the Kuron/Shiro thing because…I hate clones popping up outside of HARD sci-fi (where the ethics and implications can be explored). I don’t use that word lightly. I have a very strong anti-clone and/or backup twin bias (and that’s me, that doesn’t mean that I think writers shouldn’t use clones). With my bias in mind, the writers managed to wrap-up Operation Kuron in a way that I more-or-less liked, which is saying a lot. But again, I see how it really bothered or disappointed a lot of other fans, and I sympathize. My bar was pretty low for where it seemed like that plot was headed and so my only requirement was that if Kuron was a clone, then I wanted Shiro to already be dead (and I don’t mean that in a negative way, only because it just wouldn’t make any sense if he were still alive) and that’s what we got. I love Shiro as a character and I’m glad he’s back! I guess? Kuron was alright too? UGH. CLONES.

Now that I’ve written this, I’m getting a bad feel that it’s almost as if Kuron was cheap way to do “What if Shiro betrayed the team?” without any of the implications associated of dealing with a betrayal by the “real” Shiro. I guess I did find something else to complain about, because the Lion-Rejection-Leads-to-Lion-Swap-Leads-to-Betrayal-Arc was already done with Sven in the DDP comics and it was fantastic. No clones necessary.

Back to tone…I came for the S1-S2 humor and light tone that occasionally had a few dark-or-serious moments but was overall fun and enjoyable. By end of S6, it is a very different tone with little joy…and it is a tone that I would be fine with if it were not for the double standard setting.

S7 may see a change in the setting…like if Earth is destroyed by Sendak then that would be enough to get my attention again (sadly, as much as I’m loving Haggar/Honerva I don’t see her story moving forward much in S7). I have zero optimism that the double standard setting will change, which makes the contrasting tones very incompatible for me, especially when the tone swings back-and-forth between extremes within a few episodes as shown in S6 with Dayak and the DnD episode vs The Colony and The Black Paladins. If I want dark tone, I can get that someplace else, and done much better, much more consistent, and without a double standard setting that glosses over things/consequences that other shows of a similar genre do not.

It may seem strange that I would want the show to go darker at this point, but to me, if S7 goes back to the tone of S1-S2, then—for reasons I outlined in my posts about double standard settings—what would have been the whole point of S3-S6? Except, as you’re getting at (if I’m understanding you right), the point would be about those nostalgia goggles on the part of the writers, but also, I suspect that there was a strong desire to re-use ATLA’s Azula breakdown as a way of leaving a signature mark on the franchise.

This (and the rest of my criticism as of late) does not mean that I think the show is terrible. There are many great moments, and overall I think VLD is well done. But there were things from S1-S2 that felt like promises…and S6 broke those, and that isn’t what I signed up for. I’m getting the sense from what I’m seeing from those who are upset about the lion swap, that this is a similar issue of “not being what y’all signed up for”.

Finally, I see plenty of fans who are excited about S7, and I’m happy for them. For those of us that are less excited, for whatever reason, sometimes that happens.

My suggestion, for those who “aren’t feeling that Voltron feeling” ahead of S7 is to:

Figure out what you’re curious about or interested in seeing, and deciding if it seems like the show will even explore those things;

Avoid reading/listening to anything from anyone involved in the show (b/c Reasons); and

Find a fan with a similar mindset but more energy for the show to review S7 for you and let you know if it’s worth your time. You can always skip episodes or fast-forward through anything you’re not enjoying.

As for myself, there are a few things that I am curious about, but I’m probably not going to watch S7 right out the gate, and instead wait for someone who is of a similar mindset to let know if it’s worth my time. At the very least, I had already planned on skipping any episodes that had anything to do with revisiting The Colony, so I’m sure that I’ll be skipping around other episodes too, if/when I watch them. Or just wait for the series to finish out, and then skip around episodes from there, or read a review to see if anything that I’m curious about is even explored.

[artcanary]

1-50

oh my god dude 

im gonna put this under a cut bc this is a lot. this is a ride, have fun i guess

1. Your first OC ever?god. its got to be Super Kitty. when i was like … an incredibly small child I used to draw comic strips about this feline caped crusader, who was friends with everyone in the city, and the comics always involved him stopping an evil banana man from stealing money from the local bank. He was paid with donuts for his service to the city. i still remember how to draw him. 

2. Do you have a personal favourite among your OCs?i’d get arrested if I didn’t answer this with Bronze, probably… but really, they’re very important to me

3. Have you ever adopted a character or gotten a character from someone else?man, i cant remember! i really dont think i have… P:

4. A character you rarely talk about?there’s loads of characters ive never even posted a single picture of on tumblr, i wouldnt even know where to start asdf

5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be? bronze is the easy answer, but… i guess that could also go to Servant or Westrin. Servant has a comic project in the works that basically stars him, sort of a series of one-shots about the things he’s experienced, i feel like that would be a good thing to take off and run with. Westrin’s just fun as hell, i love the guy.

6. Two OCs of yours that look alike despite not being related?real talk now… there’s at least five different characters that i refer to as a whole as “bronze-tangential”, who started out as, “what would bronze be like if they were in this world?” and then becoming their own thing within said world because i just get stupid attached 

its an epidemic

7. Are your OCs part of any story or stories?nearly all of them, actually. that’s the main reason i make characters, after all! too many to really go into specifics here, again P: 

8. Do you RP as any of your OCs? If you do, introduce one of your RP OCs here!not often, but i think Bronze and Westrin are the most common ones. unless playing a character in dnd, or running an npc in dnd counts… then a whole lot more hahaha

9. Would you ever be willing to give any of your OCs to someone else?it depends on the circumstances. i don’t really like the idea, though. 

10. Introduce an OC with a complicated design? Westrin’s old getup is a pain to draw, and there was one other design i did that I cant find anywhere… whichever way, i dont often tend to draw super complicated things often 

a couple fakemon ive designed though… heheh those can get pretty finicky

11. Is there any OC of yours you could describe as a “sunshine”? hmmmmmmmm my immediate thought was Eric Silverdale from a comic i was working on a few years ago. hes a darling, i want him to be my friend irl

12. Name an OC that isn’t yours but who you like a lothow could you do this to me i love each and every one of all my friends ocs GOD the first one who comes to mind is @d20-official‘s Smith, whos Bronze’s friend… everyone in that DND party actually

13. Do you have any troublemaker OCs? Rated on a scale from “harmless” to “honestly somewhat frightening”: -Baromet (charming and quite friendly but definitely a kleptomaniac),-Westrin (demigod of bards and travelers), -XEN09 (a nonsense hacker), -Conny (needlessly contrarian and dumb as HELL), -Enza Colie (long fucking story but hes a good-for-nothing), -Hemlocke (mad scientist, chaotic evil), -Iris (AI and hacker, VERY bad), -The Terminus (glitch-in-the-matrix demon, chaotic evil), -and Sydd (the Queen of the Faeries, hopefully the danger there needs no explaining :’D)

14. Introduce an OC with a tragic backstory Mmm… there’s a few of them, most obviously Lent (whose background I did a short comic about). Basically his entire town got eaten by ghosts and turned into zombies, he only barely survived with a sliver of his soul left. 

15. Do you like to talk about your OCs with other people?yes, i often discuss storylines and such with friends

16. Which one of your OCs would be the best at biology (school subject)? Probably Bronze’s dad! I don’t talk about him much, but his name’s Devon Reed, and he was a biotech developer specialising in android design. 

I often describe him as being something of a reverse Arthur Weasley - a very fatherly scientist fascinated to the moon and back with the concept of magic. 

17. Any OC OTPs? having trouble thinking of a lot of them right now, but there’s Eric + Lent & Naiadine + Tailias from Emerald Sigil, Avken + Baromet from my space campaign world, Sydd + Wyvv from my unnamed campaign world, and I’ve been considering Westrin + Servant as an interesting dynamic in Servant’s story

18. Any OC crackships? My character Bismuth and @autistictimeknight​‘s oc Eros. Theyre so fucking in love, I love it. Its been awhile but I do still think about them sometimes.

As I recall, Eros is an empath, she can read other people’s emotions. But Bismuth is a robot, and Eros can’t read her. Because of this Eros can let go of her fear of unintentionally manipulating the emotions of her date, which would hold her back from most other relationships. 

19. Introduce an OC that means a lot to you (and explain why)Hey, meet Bronze! I definitely do not talk about them every five minutes, why would you say that. 

Bronze was with me through two of the hardest years of my life so far, and being a DND character they grew with me, both as a fighter and as a person. They were non-binary before I started using those pronouns, they were the first character or person or anything who I fought someone about using the right pronouns for, they make a great icebreaker for if I want to see how someone reacts to non-binary pronouns … 

One funny anecdote about Bronze is that when I first made them, their “gimmick” was that they would sometimes glitch out and mess up their speech, mostly because I wanted an excuse not to engage in the roleplaying (which I was very bad at). The interesting thing is that as I got better at interacting with the group, we both grew out of needing it very quickly. 

I’m very proud of Bronze. 

20. Do any of your OCs sing? If they sing, care to share more details (headcanon voice, what kind of songs they like etc)?Westrin is a bard! His singing voice sounds like Bill Wurtz and these are his theme songs.

21. Your most artistic OCProbably Westrin again, he writes a lot of songs… and Hallux is a game designer?

22. Is there any OC of yours people tend to mischaracterize? If yes, how? I honestly dont know… no-one talks to me about them, haha! 

people use all manner of pronouns for bronze, though. 

23. Introduce OC that has changed from your first idea concerning what the character would be like?I’m gonna go with Enza for this one. Enza Colie was originally written entirely because I wanted an antagonist for a short starring his sister, Jane Colie. But the more I fleshed out his reasonings for acting how he did and explored his character, the more I realised he’d make an even more interesting character if allowed to have a redemption arc, too. 

I just want to state for the record that I was very reluctant to the idea, and he basically dragged his way out of the villain pit entirely of his own accord. I am dubiously proud of him, and also a bit scared. 

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?Probably either Eric (Big Man, Best Friend), Crocus (Mother figure), Reed (Father Figure), Westrin (hed just make a good friend u kno??), or Bismuth (she makes good conversation!)

25. The OC that resembles you the most (same hobby, height, shared like/dislike for something etc?)probably the homestuck fan-troll Hallux, but that’s mostly because they were based on a troll-sona I made awhile ago. They’re a hope/prospit game designer who is small and full of rage and love

oh, and there’s dave! dave’s a superhero speedster, existing in a modern-day superhero version of seattle. theyre idiot, just like me,

26. Have you ever had to change your OC’s design or something else about them against your will? this is an interesting one… i don’t think ive ever had something Bad in a design ive done called to my attention by someone, but I did create my character Servant at around the same time I was first really expanding the diversity of my casts. (since i don’t talk about him often, a little context: he’s a magic spirit creature bound to human form to serve the royal family of the land and follow their orders.) 

somehow, younger-and-more-stupid me managed to have the revelation that making this “eternal slave” character literally anything other than a white man, especially as a white author, would be Pretty Not Good. im … thats really, really not something i should pat myself on the back for, but i do consider it one of the biggest bullets dodged in my artistic career so far that i realised that not all representation is good representation so quickly, before i could make that incredibly, incurably stupid mistake. 

after that, trying to make sure my characters and their presentations don’t harm anyone pretty much has become a paranoia. i don’t seem to have stepped on any toes yet, but when it inevitably happens, please let me know - i didnt know, and i want to fix it! 

27. Any OCs that were inspired by a certain song? None that I can think of, actually! I don’t really do that often. 

28. Your most dangerous OC? god damn it i have no idea!!! is it the terminus? glitch in the matrix god of chaos motherfucker?is it sarle? terrifying calculating scientist with the power of the soul at her fingertips ??? is it ares??? is it athena????? is it petra?????? the gatekeeper???? 

… actually, the gatekeeper might be it, if “dangerous” just refers to “the amount of raw power it can wield”. the Gatekeeper is a titanic entity that exists in interdimensional multiverse space, and its implied to have the ability to create and destroy entire universe bubbles at will. for what cosmic purpose, no-one knows. 

at a more personal scale, though, literally all of the aforementioned characters are pretty bad to run into too. 

29. Which one of your OCs would go investigate an abandoned house at night without telling anyone they’re going?god. Mina or Tawn. Tawn is the Indiana Jonesy type and probably dumb enough, but also competent enough not to get into too much trouble there. Mina would probably drag her friends along. 

30. Which one of your OCs would most likely have a secret stuffed animal collection? XEN09. No-one knows, because no-one knows xir personal identity. Xe absolutely does, though. It’s less of a secret if you know xir in person, but good luck finding out about it otherwise. 

31. Pick one OC of yours and explain what their tumblr blog would be like (what they reblog, layout, anything really)dave just reblogs memes all the time tbh. they like to keep tabs on the ridiculous superhero news going on, and they show human jokes and cat videos to their alien gf. they dont really post or add to posts, but they talk in tags a lot. 

32. Which one of your OCs would be the most suitable horror game protagonist and why? i want to say tawn because i literally just realised ive been imagining their voice as sounding like luigi this entire fucking time and i never realised until this exact instant

33. Your shyest OC?probably baromet. they prefer to keep to themself in their hideout, with their collection of shiny things. they don’t really enjoy trying to communicate much, mostly because they expect to get yelled at. 

34. Do you have any twin characters?Yes! At least two sets; 

- Crocus and Sarle. (x) (x) They don’t exactly have a very well-developed relationship, but they are both quite important to the plot of my campaign world, and they are both very interesting. Crocus is a motherly figure who just exudes friendliness, while Sarle is .. very much not that, a researcher studying very gruesome things and pushing the boundaries of reality. 

- Jane and Enza Colie. I haven’t talked a whole lot about either of them here, but I’d rather leave their story to do the talking whenever I get around to it. Essentially, the both of them were intended to do the dirty work for their crime boss family, but Jane ditched to study medicine. Most of the conflict between the two of them comes out of Enza not understanding why she made the choice she did, and coming to understand how he’s been manipulated. 

35. Any sibling characters? I can’t really think of any off the top of my head, I should … I should really work on that. 

I can talk about Westrin, though. Westrin (a demigod of many things, but namely bards, travel, travelers, and people who are lost) often becomes close friends with mortals, sometimes practically adopting them. These people who consider him family, and people who have received his blessing, are able to use his surname, Brilanta, as their own if they choose. So I guess all of the Brilantas are siblings, at least in spirit. 

Oh, and XEN09 has like, seven siblings. Xe is the second-oldest, and least remarkable. 

36. Do you have OC pairs where the other part belongs to someone else (siblings, lovers, friends etc)? I already talked about Eros and Bismuth up there a ways in question 18, but I’ll talk about another relationship here. @autistictimeknight​‘s character, Nova the Alchemist, is mentor and adopted parental figure to my character Munna. Munna … Munna isn’t a very good apprentice. She tries very hard. 

37. Introduce an OC who is not quite human That’s most of them, I’m not quite sure what to say here. Bronze is an android? Bronze again? Westrin? All the aliens ?? 

38. Which one of your OCs would be the best dancer? man. uh. westrin or jean. or perhaps valencia. 

39. Introduce any character you want ??? uhhhHHHhhHHH Lord Brillium is the reigning deity of the Cloud Kingdoms in the other campaign setting I’m working on. They represent light and the quest for knowledge, and spend most of their days in the Cathedral Observatory watching the stars. 

40. Any fond memories linked to your characters? Feel free to share!one time bronze flew a hover-bike through the stained glass window in a cathedral blaring all star by smash mouth on their iguana

also one time bronze rickrolled a rakshasa demon and then pulled updog on it like, two minutes later

another time bronze scared off an entire army by pretending to be an automated security system 

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs? If yes, maybe show a picture or two here (remember sources & permissions!)ive got a whole little folder on here from all you blessed people !!!! right now ive got a drawing quinn did of one o fmy characters as my lockscreen

but i think the one i’ll really never ever get over is this piece of Jane, by @rabendraws​ / @owoltron​: 

(i bet you thought i forgot about this, dude. dude. think again.) 

42. Which one of your OCs would be the most interested in Greek gods? this is kind of a weird question, m, I feel like Bismuth would find learning about the mythos utterly fascinating, as would Tawn. 

43. Do you have any certain type when you create your OCs? Do you tend to favour some certain traits or looks? It’s time to confesshaha. uh. i might. 

aside from the entire “bronze-tangential characters” thing i mentioned awhile back, I tend to really like designing characters with hair color lighter than their skin color. it just looks so cool man. i love drawing freckles but dont put them on enough characters. i like really curly hair, but also really long and flowy hair. i like drawing triangular body types, and pointy/prominent noses. 

44. Something you like about your OCs in generaluhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this is a really vague question. m. m. 

45. A character you no longer use?there’s old versions of characters, but a lot of my older ones have been somehow repurposed. I guess there’s Turien, my first-ever DND character, who’s just kind of sitting dead now. Haven’t really done anything with him other than a pretty recent tangential character. 

46. Has anyone ever told you that you treat your OCs badly?Not that I can think of.

47. Has anyone ever (friendly) claimed any of your OCs as their child? Im certain it’s happened, but I can’t remember any specific instances. 

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pureSpring. spring knows nothing of th dangers of the world who is letting them into fights someon eneeds to stop this

(spring roll, hehe.) 

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memesim not sure what this question is asking since many of my ocs actively enjoy memes including but not limited to westrin, dave, bronze, xen09, iris, and doctor archersen

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you wanti think. i think im going to pass on this one. i gave you the good old oc talk. your damn turn, yall: 

if you have any questions about any of these guys feel free to shoot one at me!

thats all from me im tired and its one am. techskylander you absolute madman 

[alhaitham-shrine]

learn more about this chaotic good idiot

@solaris-boy tagged me to talk about myself and i almost didn’t until i remembered that i love talking about myself so!!

nickname: My full name is SeVayne (suh-vain) and it’s been mispronounced as: Savannah, Swayze, Sven, Suh-wayne(?), suh-van, and once as Savage which was really just insulting. I once got called Seven and that’s a nickname I’ve actually stuck with and enjoyed, but more often than not people call me Sev (my gf calls me a prick, does that count?)

gender: idk some days, but my pronouns are still she/her so.

star sign: virgo-libra! I’m a cusp baby (cusp of Beauty!!) so I’m technically both? which is great because just being a virgo never felt right

sexuality: i’m just one big ole lesbian, my dudes (but on occasion a dude will be hot and I wouldn’t mind making out with one. just. not interested in anything else with a guy)

hogwarts house: SLYTHERIN!! a fact that still upsets me to this day because for a good chunk of time I swore up and down that I was Hufflepuff and no one believed me so i finally took the dumb test and got slytherin and i wanted to fight everyone i knew but considering I failed math every year and, every year, would be able to talk my dad into letting me stay in theatre despite my failing grades? i guess slytherin is a good fit for me

favorite animals: princess parrots, hyenas, snakes, CATS, dogs, snakes again cause i love them so much, okapis, and the Megalodon

favorite color: purple! my interests and likes change drastically with every passing day but purple will always be my favorite color. 

current favorite song: i don’t think i’m capable of picking one song but today i listened to ‘fifteen minutes’ by mike krol on repeat several times for a fic. 

favorite ideas to get creative with: idk what this means, but time travel! there’s really nothing i love more than the concept of time travel! I read the webcomic “saint for rent” a few years ago and i knew i liked time travel before but there was something about the comic that really brought that love back to life and now i am currently working on a book about time travel!!

what i like to do most when i’m alone: I listen to a shit ton of podcasts! so many, in fact, that I cannot list all of them, but i will name the Top 3: Friends at the Table (an actual play podcast that is very gay and the first scifi season broke my heart); The Adventure Zone, obviously; and King Falls AM which never fails to make me wanna run marathons cause it gets me so excited and pumped and shit. also i’ve been doing a lot more drawing, i write, i read, i eat a lot of food, i watch dumb yt videos, i stare at walls. i’m never alone often so when i am i just like to exist as peacefully as I can manage, doing whatever i damn well please

what do i think of my friends: i have made a lot of new friends within the past year due to TAZ and they’re some of the weirdest idiots i know but i love all of them, and i love playing dnd with em. i’ve known Alex for almost 4 or 5 years and i would lay down my life for her in half a heartbeat she means the world and more to me. AJ and i go through periods of time where we never interact but i still couldn’t imagine living a life not knowing her. Theo, who tagged me in this, also doesn’t talk to me a lot but I enjoy knowing that he exists and that i can count him as a friend. 

average hours spent sleeping: 4. sometime 6 if my panic brain feels like being nice. 12 if given the chance. i once slept an entire 17 hours and then stayed awake for almost 3 whole days afterward

cats or dogs: fuck you

number of blankets i sleep with: uhhhhhh one right now cause i’m sick and overheating but 3 or 4 if i can get my room cold enough

dream job: i wanna get into making podcasts or short films! i love the idea of being an author but i’m too visual of a person to limit myself to just words and i feel like podcasts or videos would really help me out. aside from that, psychologist is another dream i’ve always had, specifically forensic psychologist. dunno why but i tmight have something to do with having watched CSI/NCIS/Law & Order: SVU from the young age of 9

dream trip: it used to be Paris, but honestly? i just wanna see Alex

when i made this account: sometime in 2014? i think?? i don’t fuckin remember, but i think October 2014 is about right

why i made this account: because my dad said i couldn’t have social media and i said “fuck you” and made an account on literally every sm i could think of. i have 5 emails

number of followers: 246, somehow!! but i’m not gonna tag anyone cause it’s 1 am and also i don’t feel like it